While the cost of living has continued to rise, in many cases wages have not kept pace. This has many people living paycheck to paycheck, or worse, scrambling to find enough money to live independently at all. While you might try to negotiate with your employer for higher wages, knowing what factors are influencing your cost of living can make it easier to make your paycheck cover more ground. Here are four of the biggest factors that are raising your cost of living and ways that you can take them down a notch.
The Rising Cost of Food
While food isn’t the biggest expense in your monthly budget, it can be the hardest for many people to make fit and is one of the most essential uses for your money. Increasingly in today’s consumer market, people are left wondering how they possibly spent so much money on so little food. This is because, according to authorities, food prices for 2019 are on the rise. To keep your food budget in line, it is essential to avoid shelling out money for fast food and instead invest in food that can be purchased cheaply and in bulk. Potatoes, rice, beans, frozen fruits and vegetables, and basic baking ingredients can help you maintain a healthy, sustainable diet without consuming aggressive amounts of your paycheck. On the other hand eating in restaurants (and even fast food) end up costing many multiples of what it would cost you to prepare the same item at home.
Rising Transportation Costs
These days in most places, you have to drive to survive, but transportation costs are making that a difficult prospect. Very few people live within walking or reasonable biking distance of their workplace, and finding work within that distance can actually be impossible for many. As public transportation isn’t available to cover the needs of the majority of Americans, that means that you need to be prudent in your choice of car. Look for cars for sale with more fuel efficient engines to save your monthly costs, and wait for end-of-year or holiday sales to get the best deals. Also, when buying a car online, make sure that you put your browser into incognito mode to ensure that the “cookies” used by companies to track your internet usage data won’t result in raised prices on the dealership websites you visit. Also remember that cars depreciate quicker when they are new often losing as much as 30% simply by driving it off the dealer’s lot. On the other hand buying a 2 or 3 year old car can save you 50% over the cost of a new vehicle and most of the ‘bugs” should be worked out of the car by then. Since modern cars can go 200,000 miles before the repairs become excessively expensive if you buy a 3 year old car with 30,000 miles on it you should be able to drive it for another 170,000 miles for the same price as the guy who drove it the first 30,000 miles.
Expensive Housing
Gone are the days when you could rent a place for around $300 to $400 a month. These days, the lower end of the rental spectrum is more than twice that price and heading upward still. Once you factor in water, trash service and electricity, you realize that you have dedicated nearly half your monthly income, if not more, just to make rent. Still, there are a few options for those of us with minimal incomes. Renting a two-bedroom apartment rather than a single is only a little more expensive than a single, and that second bedroom can then be rented out by you to someone else. This gives you additional income that will more than cover the cost of an extra bedroom. You can also share rent with roommates, or if you can afford a home, buy a small home and rent out the basement.
High-Priced Education
A formal education is essential to getting into the majority of upper-level, higher-paying jobs in today’s job market. Unfortunately, like everything else, the cost of a college education is on the rise, and many students come out of college with crippling debt and no job waiting for them. Instead of giving up on your dreams of having a better education and a higher paying job, it may be best to simply take fewer classes each semester and continue working while you attend school. This may take you longer to earn your degree, but it will help make paying for your education something far more manageable. Using Community College, online classes and trade schools where relevant to your chosen field can greatly reduce the time commitment and overall costs of your education. One of the biggest mistakes students make is when choosing their degree. You should always choose a degree with growing demand rather than something like Liberal Arts or Gender studies. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes an excellent guide called the Occupational Outlook Handbook that lists most jobs and tells you the average salary and what the projections are for job opportunities over the next several years.
When you take the time to figure out how to manipulate your spending and budget more effectively, you can retain more of your money as you go. As the cost of living continues to rise, it’s important to save wherever possible to keep your expenses from overtaking your income. To make lasting change, be sure to reach out to your local government representatives and to vote for bills that will help raise wages and lower the costs of living.
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